News topics

The Metropolitan Police are investigating claims of a £3m theft from art fair Masterpiece London.

A locket given to George IV’s true love was hammered down at £280,000 yesterday at Christie’s, more than doubling its high estimate.

It was known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice but life in the Italian city state could be turbulent. The maritime republic spanned the 8th to 18th centuries though opportunities to amass power and wealth were challenged by outside threats, particularly from the Ottoman Empire. Among a group of documents on offer at Christie’s is one which recalls the city’s naval endeavours - a commission for the pirate-hunter Benedetto Pesaro.

Property redevelopment plans are to force the closure of Surrey’s Honeypot Antiques Centre this summer.

Francesco Guardi’s (1712-93) 'The Rialto Bridge with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi' led Christie’s latest evening sale of Old Masters in London. It was knocked down at £23.25m following a competition between two phone bidders.

A Cork Street gallery has become the first in the UK to accept digital currencies such as Bitcoin.

In a lively evening sale of Old Masters at Sotheby’s, one of the few large-scale oil paintings by JMW Turner (1775-1851) left in private hands was knocked down at £17m.

Ian Ehling has joined Bonhams’ New York office as director of fine books and manuscripts.

Militaria archive material such as documents, letters and log books has been delivering strong results at auction recently, aided by cross-over appeal to photography enthusiasts.

A long-running appeal to raise nearly half a million pounds to return a Wedgwood’s First Day’s vase to Staffordshire has triumphed.

A court in the US will decide the fate of more than 5500 Titanic artefacts after the company that owns them filed for bankruptcy.

The Goldsmiths’ Company has pledged £10m to help fund the creation of a new home for The Museum of London.

One of the leading lots at this week’s Old Master auctions in London is a JMW Turner (1775-1851) that Sotheby’s predicts could make a record for a British-born artist.

An action group that campaigns for the protection of elephants staged a protest against the trade in antique ivory outside Art & Antiques Fair Olympia, on Saturday afternoon (July 1).

The Holey Grail of the Australian coins world… hang on, we used that pun in a 2013 ATG story. Nevertheless, it is Holey appropriate:  the Holey Dollar remains a must-have for collectors of Australian coins.

The department of culture, media and sport has issued an export bar on an 18th century drawing of Schmadribach Waterfall by Austrian Romantic artist Joseph Anton Koch (1768-1839) and launched a search for a UK buyer to match the asking price of £68,750.